Exclusive: ICE Agents Told to Ramp Up Daily Immigration Arrests Despite GOP Unease as Midterms Near

Immigration and Customs Enforcement leadership told agents nationwide on Tuesday to increase immigration arrests by 1,000 more people daily, returning to a previous goal of 3,000 daily arrests, according to two sources familiar with the verbal directive.

It’s the latest sign of ongoing pressure on agents as the Trump administration doubles down on its immigration crackdown despite some Republican unease over who the agency is targeting. ICE also recently released a contract solicitation to expand holding space at agency offices, citing “exceptionally high operational tempo with increased arrests.”

With the directive on daily arrests, ICE returns to a previous White House imposed push to arrest 3,000 people a day, an unprecedented number that the agency has previously struggled to meet. ICE had recently been taking around 2,000 people into custody daily on average — a target that officials wanted to sustain.

They were also instructed to try to reach 19,000 arrests per week, which accounts for the fact that there are generally fewer arrests over the weekend and not as many officers in the field, one of the sources said. The source stressed that the agency is trying to push officers to arrest as many people as possible for deportation. As a point of comparison, in late June, ICE arrested just over 12,500 people in a week, according to the Deportation Data project, marking a high point.

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Senior Trump officials have repeatedly denied that agents are required to meet arrest quotas, describing the push as a goal, and maintained that agents aren’t punished if they fail to meet that goal.

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